First 24 Hours

The first 24 hours your pet may be confused, scared or lonely and although it maybe fun to give them extra attention and let them get away with naughty behavior (ie. Jumping, sleeping with you), do NOT let it go on for more 24 hours. Letting them know what the house rules are, is important as you don’t want your new puppy learning bad habits.

Sleeping Arrangements

Your bed is your bed. Your puppy’s bed is their crate.

Sleeping alone gets your pet accustomed to being on its own, while still securely at home

It would be an unfortunate educational experience to have to learn the first lesson of sleeping alone during an emergency overnight visit at the vet! In addition, people who need to take their animals to the vet (or travel on a plane) when the animal isn’t used to staying on its own in a crate or enclosed area puts undue stress on the animal. The added stress of the unfamiliar crate can make things difficult for your puppy.

Being on the bed is a privilege, not a right.

Crating

Crates are good as it prepares them for the future. However, once they learn to settle well and have been in doing their crate routine with success for 4 weeks, you can now make the decision if you want to keep up with the routine or if you’d like to be more flexible, giving them more freedom in sleeping arrangements. Check out our “CRATING” page for more info about how to create a positive experience.

Routine

Feeding, crating and walking on a routine will allow your pet to come in line with your family’s schedule. Don’t make the mistake of allowing your pet to dictate your schedule (including interrupting your sleep), puppies CAN sleep through the night. Simply, by crating your dog, and maintaining a reasonable schedule you can put many scheduling issues aside, and get to the wonderful part of having a pet; time well spent together!

Food Related Issues

1. Do not free feed your pet!
   One can’t stress this enough! One of the leading causes of death and illness in all pets today is due to obesity. This is so easy to fix if you just ration your pet’s food and change the amount as they gain or lose weight! Healthy rationing is not so easy if they are free fed! Scheduled feeding also provides information to you. If something is “off” with your puppy you will notice if your pet isn’t hungry, which may not be as easily detected it if they have ample food out all the time.
2. You miss out on mental stimulation time if you free feed.
   Our training dogs all work for their food…this is natural; food does not fall from the sky in the wild! They need to use their brain to find, hunt and capture their food…it is not right to deny any species mental activity throughout the day. Everyone in life needs a job to do to reach their full potential. So, if you have a house pet it is your job to provide them with something to do, this is part of their well being.